A new service patented by Amazon.com would allow would-be recipients to view their gifts online before they’re ever shipped. If the gift is lame, the recipient could elect to receive its value as a gift certificate.
Such a procedure would save retailers the tons of money it currently spends dealing with returns (and shipping, for that matter), in what is a hugely inefficient process that might involve shipping in two directions and multiple employees needed to handle all aspects of the transactions.
The Washington Post, which broke the story that nobody at Amazon is commenting on, reports that the e-retailing industry would love this concept for obvious reasons, as would consumers sick of receiving horrendous gifts they have to return or regift or just leave in the attic until it feels OK to donate or toss them.
While no one enjoys bad gifts, however, etiquette experts say that a system allowing for preemptively returning bad gifts is worse. Anna Post of the Emily Post Institute is quoted as saying:
“The point of gift giving is to allow someone else to go through that action of buying something for us. Otherwise, giving a gift just becomes another one of the world’s transactions.”
And:
“Gift giving is not just about the loot. It’s about the fact that someone thought to get you something, and took the time to do it. That’s no small thing in this world.”
What with the popularity of online wish lists and gift cards (a topic that gets me worked up), however, isn’t this all semantics? All too often, in a world where most sides of the exchange don’t want or need anything, gift-giving is just “another of the world’s transactions,” and giving the recipient an easy means of returning is actually quite thoughtful.
Then again, if gift-giving is just a simple business-like transaction, and if givers want recipients to be happy and to use the value of the gift however they please, why not just cut to the chase and give the perfect gift: cash?
Or we could all use our devices to virtually give each other money: I’d give you “$50,” you’d give me “$50” and we’d call it a holiday. We wouldn’t even have to see each other or feel forced into making awkward small talk or anything.
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